Nothing galvanises Britain’s Olympic rowers quite like the last burst of
competitive racing before the London regatta.

The pressure was reflected in their performances in the third and final round of the World Rowing Cup here in Bavaria on Friday, which underlined a widening gap in class between the British crews tipped for gold and those targeting a medal of any colour at Eton this summer.

While the country’s flagship boats, not least the women’s double scull of Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins or the pair of Helen Glover and Heather Stanning, glided to victory with the greatest ease, the men’s double of Bill Lucas and Sam Townsend toiled. Just like a sub-par men’s pair and quadruple scull, they will require repechages on Saturday to progress.

Britain confirmed places in seven of Saturday’s finals: a bare minimum for a squad chasing six medals — including four golds — in London. Little wonder that performance director David Tanner was less than effusive, describing the display as “pretty solid”.

According to Tanner, “the quality of the racing is very high”, and the strain upon his athletes in the last pre-Olympic regatta in Munich is understandably intense. The men’s eight, featuring 40-year-old Greg Searle but still without preferred stroke man Constantine Louloudis, must secure nothing less than gold on Saturday to sustain their confidence, given that world champions Germany have withdrawn from the competition.

Single sculler Alan Campbell, from Northern Ireland, is also expected to win in the absence of main rival Mahé Drysdale, after the New Zealander injured his shoulder in a bike accident outside Dachau.

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The most encouraging statement on Friday was made by Mark Hunter and Zac Purchase in the lightweight men’s double, as they trailed narrowly behind New Zealand to advance to their final. Gold medallists in Beijing four years ago, the duo had been wretched in the World Cup meeting in Lucerne last month, limping home in sixth amid suggestions of a stomach ailment for Purchase. But on this evidence they looked rejuvenated, reviving hopes that they can yet produce one of a quartet of British Olympic golds on Eton’s Dorney Lake.

Paul Thompson, the lightweights’ coach, explained: “I said after Lucerne that were no excuses and I still work on that. In the lead-up to Beijing, you could tell they were on fire and that was a performance coming. Now we need more boat speed. They are fast, strong athletes, and there are enough bits of the jigsaw to put it together.

“You know, when Zac is ‘on’, that he is absolutely stunning, but not always consistent. He’s always more on the edge of his weight limit, picking up coughs and colds. He has got to manage himself and make sure he takes care of business on the water.”

At least the men’s four, freighted by the heritage of Sir Steve Redgrave and Sir Matthew Pinsent, delivered a race to reinforce their status as gold-medal favourites. Having set a world record in their heat in Switzerland, they were similarly impressive here in easing to a time of 5min 48.84sec.

The crew appeared more compact as Pete Reed took over the bow seat from Alex Gregory, and a semi-final confrontation today with their bêtes noires, Australia — who almost snatched victory in Lucerne in the closing 200 metres — should provide a valuable barometer of their prospects.

“The Australians have their boat together,” Jürgen Grobler, the men’s head coach, said. “They will be the big challenge.” As the Olympians enter a six-week ‘lockdown’ phase post-Munich, Grobler plans to put his men’s crews through maximum-intensity altitude training in Austria to help yield the ultimate prize.